Some smallholding farmers are forsaking their tractors in favour of working with the traditional horse and cart, resulting in big fuel savings
MARKET GARDENER Jim Cronin works two muscular Percheron horses on his smallholding in Bridgetown, Co Clare. His family and locality were steeped in the tradition of working horses, so when he bought his farm in the 1980s, it was natural for him to use horses to work the land.
"Everyone around me, my family, neighbours and friends, knew about horses and I knew they would work well with small-scale horticulture. I started with a Cobb, and I have had all shapes and sizes since. My grandfather did it, my father did it, I am doing it and my 14-year-old son is able to work horses now, too. That continuity is important to me."
But it's not all about tradition - he says that horses are also the right tool for the job. "My philosophy is that it has to work. A lot of people would be interested in antiquated old machinery - things that need a lot of tinkering. I am not in to that at all. I don't view my horses as antiques. They are here to work."
Cronin has a tractor on his farm but is less and less interested in using it. The horses, he says, are better suited to particular jobs, such as preparing a seedbed, planting, cultivating and fertilising. Their impact on the land is gentler, too.
While a tractor will compact soil, a horse steps lightly between furrows leaving only footprints rather than long-lasting tracks. There is something magical about the idea of this enormous animal (they weigh about 800kg each and stand up to 17 hands tall) being able to tread delicately between furrows.
"I have a weed-control programme here, for example, which involves using a green manure. In February, I have to run a harrow through it which knocks back the first flush of weeds and opens up the soil. You couldn't do that work with a tractor on our land in February."
The horses also give him a certain protection from the world of economics outside the farm gate: he doesn't need to worry about the price of diesel, for one thing.
They also fit beautifully with the smallholding ethos that a farm should be a self-contained and self-sustaining ecosystem with little need for outside resources. The horses are fed from the land's produce and, in return, they work the land and fertilise it with their manure. For all the bells and whistles of the modern tractor, it is not that accommodating.
The Percheron, he says, is the classic French working horse. "I just love the passion and the power of the Percherons. They are very strong and very willing to work and perfect for working wet land. They will slosh through mud quite happily.
"The mothers of these horses worked so the ethic is in their bloodline. Putting a harness on them is a mixture of work and pleasure for me, the sound of the leather on the harness and the feeling of walking beside them. You must love the animals to do this. If you are constantly thinking that you could be doing the job faster on a tractor, then you are not in the right mindset."
It's unlikely, of course, that every farmer in the state will suddenly abandon the tractor for the humble horse, but with rising fuel costs there is an emerging interest in the idea.
Four years ago, Cronin started giving instruction classes on his smallholding and at The Organic Centre in Rossinver, Co Leitrim. What started as a niche course is starting to have more mainstream appeal. "It does take knowledge and skill to work horses, and it's an accumulated knowledge that has by and large been lost. I see a change happening slowly with farmers being interested in keeping their tractors and using horses for specific jobs. These are very much people who want their farms to work. They don't have their heads in the clouds."
Wexford smallholder Denis Shannon attended one of Cronin's courses in Rossinver in April, and was so impressed that he sold his tractor a month later. Shannon runs a 20-acre smallholding in Mayglass where he rears pigs, cows and poultry as well as growing fruit and vegetables to sell to local restaurants and markets.
Horses have been on the farm for years but they were basically pets. "Working them is something that had been in my mind for years," he says. "When I was about nine or 10, we had a neighbour who had a pony and we used to borrow it to weed the furrows for the potatoes. So there is that element of nostalgia about this for me."
Cronin's course was a revelation, he says. "It's like someone laying something out for you and you are sitting there wondering, 'Why the hell didn't I think of this before?' We spent a day working with these magnificent animals and Jim painted a picture of this being something very practical rather than being about nostalgia."
Within days, his own horses - a 16-year-old grey Connemara pony called Beauty and a 12-year-old Cobb called Blaze - were being put through their paces. They are still in the early stages of their training, he says, but he was confident enough in his (and their) ability after a month to sell off his tractor and other machinery.
"It took a while to drag the knowledge from the brain, but I just knew from the start that I could do the jobs I needed to do with them." Does he miss the tractor? "I've spent days up on a smelly, noisy tractor and by the end of the day, I feel strung out - there's nothing satisfying about it. Certainly, working a horse is physically demanding but it's far more satisfying.
"Tractors have a lot of drawbacks on a smallholding. They are expensive to maintain and expensive to run. We can feed the horses from the smallholding so we have basically a free power supply. I go out in the morning and put the tack on them and they are there for the day, ready for whatever job I might be doing - weeding, hoeing, harrowing, ploughing."
We tack up Beauty and head off around the farm. She seems delighted to be going out while Blaze is decidedly annoyed at being left behind, grunting dismissively as we head off. A small timber cart is attached to the tack and we use it to pick stones in a paddock, while three cows look on inquisitively.
Both horses love to work, according to Shannon. They are fitter than they used to be - as is he! Even with the substantial weight she is carrying, Beauty is eager to break into a trot. "She's that type of horse. You are constantly reigning her in. She's a real character but she's some horse to work. I work on my own mostly but when I am working with them, I don't feel that I am on my own. A horse is a thinking animal; they communicate with you."
Beauty is impressively responsive, reacting instantly to voice commands such as "stand", "go on". We bring the stones from the farm up to an alpine rockery in front of the house. She effortlessly swings around on the lawn, stopping beside the rockery while we unload. You could do all this on a tractor, of course, but the lawn would take a year to recover from the trauma.
Next up, Shannon attaches a forecart to the tack (it looks for all the world like a rickshaw) and we sit in. The forecart has a tow on the back which takes all manner of attachments. Shannon loads a car trailer to it and Beauty heads off, pulling a cart with two people in it and a car trailer with apparent ease. Shannon tells me that he has been using the horses to collect feed and run errands at the local co-op.
What do the locals make of it, I wonder? "They are always amused at me anyway," he laughs. "But they have even more reason to be amused now."
Working with Horses, a one-day course for beginners, is at Jim Cronin's farm in Bridgetown, Co Clare on August 30th (€99). Book with The Organic Centre, Co Leitrim, 071-9854338, www.theorganiccentre.ie